


The Last Night In London

by AnneWolfe



Series: Carry On Countdown 2020 AnneWolfe [6]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Anger, Crying, Drinking, F/F, First Kiss, Girls' Night Out, Goats, London, Memories, Nicodemus Goes To The Vampires, POV Fiona Pitch, Pictures, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27808051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnneWolfe/pseuds/AnneWolfe
Summary: Fiona remembers that last night she hung out with Ebb in the aftermath of Nicodemus leaving for the vampires.
Relationships: Ebeneza "Ebb" Petty/Fiona Pitch
Series: Carry On Countdown 2020 AnneWolfe [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025661
Kudos: 3
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	The Last Night In London

**Author's Note:**

> Day 6 Carry On Countdown. I don't have much to say other than I was a little unsure if I wrote Fiona correctly. I originally wasn't going to attempt to wright her, but then I just went with it.

I come out from the White Chapel and stretch. I can't believe that I got so emotional. It's just that Basil used pieces of Natasha's speech. 

I blow my nose and dig around in my purse for a pack of fags. I take one out and light it.

I had offered to take Baz to Chelsea and get him sozzled, but he refused, saying that he needed to stay for the Leavers ball.

I start off towards the Wavering Wood. It's been years since I have been around the grounds. Not since Natasha died. 

As I am walking I see the barn. I veer towards it and start heading towards the large structure. The red paint is faded and peeling a little. As I get closer I start to hear a strange bleating.

I come around the corner of the building and find a crowd of goats milling about. They seem anxious and I kneel down infront of a large white and black one. She comes over and head butts me. 

“Hey,” I say scratching her head. 

I see a door into the barn and push it open. As soon as the door is open the goats eagerly rush past me and make themselves at home in the barn. 

I wander into the barn and find that it seems like someone has been living here. Who would live in a barn with goats? The air is chilly despite the warm temperatures outside. I shiver and run my hands over my arms. There is a light layer of dust coating all the surfaces as if someone hasn’t been back in a while, but it seems just like the person who lived here just stepped out for a moment and will be back any minute. There is a plate of old food resting next to the stove and a book lies open on the table. The bed pushed in the corner is unmade and a TV sits on a crate across what appears to be the sitting room. 

Despite never being here before, I feel a connection to the ratty living quarters. As if I know the person who lives here.

I wade through the goats and push over to the makeshift shelves on the walls. They are covered in little bobles. Most of them are goats, but there are a few sheep and donkeys. 

I go to the bed and look at the old quilt. It looks handmade and I see something poking out from under the mattress. I fit my hand under the mattress and pull out a picture frame.

I almost drop it when I see who the picture is of. 

“Shit.”

I stood there frozen for a long while. I look at the picture again. I remember this day as clear as if it were yesterday.

We were sitting under the yew tree. There is a picture from this day in my yearbook, but this one wasn’t submitted to the yearbook committee. I didn’t even know that Ebb had saved this one. 

All three of us are sitting under the yew tree, Nicky, Ebb, and I. I am glaring at Nicky because he had just tried to kiss me, (though I was secretly pleased) and Ebb is giving him this tired, exasperated look, but I see that she is looking at me.

Ebb’s expression has this undertone that I can’t quite read. I wonder what she was thinking. A few weeks after this she had kissed me. Nicky had just run off to the vampires and we were both feeling betrayed and hurt.

I had snuck up to Ebb’s room and found her sobbing in her bed. It was just before graduation and I was coming up to offer to run away to London for the last day of school before graduation. Have a wild week. Sneak into clubs and maybe get into a few pub brawls. Try to block out the reality of Nicky leaving us.

“Ebb!” I said closing the door behind me.

She was tucked into a tight ball in the far corner of her bed. Her roommate, Matilda, was out. 

“Ebb,” I said again, crossing the room and sitting down next to her.

She rolled over to face me. Snot was dripping down her nose and her eyes were swollen and red.

I reached out my arms and pulled her into a hug, normally I wouldn’t be this affectionate, but Ebb is my best friend and I just feel awful. We both do.

“I...I...I just don’t know,” she sobs into my black shirt. “How, how, how could he leave us?”

“I don’t know? The fucker made a big mistake.”

“Di, did you hear? Ther, they're going to strike hi, him from the books.”

I did not hear. Serves him right. I don’t say that though. Ebb does not want to hear that, instead I rub her back, “No.”

“He, he, he just left us. How could he?” she lifted her head to look at me and then said, “You. You were his girlfriend. He, he was my twin,” then with sudden vengeance she snarls, “He never was good enough for you. The way he treated you. You could have done better.”

I don’t know what to make of this. Her sudden anger towards her brother. The ferocity with which she says it makes me recoil slightly. I never knew that sweet, gentle Ebb was so vehement about this.

“Do you want to go to London?”

She sits up.

“We could sneak into clubs and find some pubs to brawl in. Just you and me.”

“What about my family? I need to see them.”

“Fuck your family. They can wait. Right now you need to release this energy, do something fun. Forget about the fucker that we will not mention.”

She grabs the hem of her shirt and pulls it up to wipe at her eyes. I see her cool, bare stomach for a few moments and it makes me shiver for some reason.

“Yes. Let’s do that.”

  


We stumble out of the noise and sensory overload of the club and into the cool night air. I have my arm sound Ebb’s shoulder and she is laughing. We stagar down the street and I flag a taxi as it passes by.

Once in the taxi, the cabbie asks us where we’d like to go.

“Where do you want to go, Ebby?” I slur to Ebb. She giggles and slumps over. We may be a _little_ more than sloshed.

“Who knows?” she giggles. “To the stars. To the stars. Away from the tosser that is my brother. Fuck him. Fuck the world.”

I lean over to the cabbie and whisper like it’s a secret, “I think she’s a little drunk. We just had a traumatic betrayal in the family. Really hurtful.” I nod my head knowingly.

He looks a little like he doesn’t know what to do with us. Two drunk teenage girls.

“Uhm, do you know where you would like to go?”

“Oh, the hotel,” giggles Ebb.

“Uh, which hotel?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, “You look smart. Pick one.”

“Ok,” he turned back to the wheel and pulled into traffic.

We drove in silence for a few minutes and Ebb leaned on my shoulder, her endless energy finally dying down.

The taxi pulled into a parking space in front of a slightly rundown hotel. The cabbie turned around, “Here you go ladies,” he held out a hand, gesturing to be paid.

I dug around in my pockets for something to pay him with and then I opened the door. I slid out and pulled Ebb behind me.

“Come on you lump,” I told her as I hoisted her to her feet. As I was closing the taxi door I heard the cabbie mutter something like, “The sights I see on the late night shift,” before I turned around and stumbled into the hotel lobby.

  


We barely made it to the bed before we collapsed. The room was a little shabby and only had one bed. 

Ebb groaned, “I think I’m going to throw up.”

This barely registered in my brain as anything I should be concerned about.

“Go on, get out of here,” I said halfheartedly pushing on her shoulder.

“Fine, fine,” Ebb rolled off the bed and wobbled to the bathroom. 

I heard retching noises and then Ebb reappeared. She slid onto the bed. Sighing. 

“Nice bed, soft bed. No more wobbles.”

She rolled onto her side and looked at me. “You're so cool, I don’t know why Nico would ever leave you.”

“Humf, fuck him,” I grumbled

“Yeah, fuck him,” she replied

Then she reached out and brushed a hand through my hair. Her fingers slid through until they reached the white streak in my hair. She twirled it around her finger and gave a light tug on it.

She leaned forward until her face was a few inches from mine. I could smell her breath, it smelled like alcohol, and mint. I guess she swallowed some mouthwash after vomiting. 

Ebb reached out a hand and pushed on my shoulder until I was on my back. Then she climbed on top of me, straddling my hips.

“What are you doing?” I asked

Instead of replying she leaned down and kissed me.

“You are so beautiful,” she whispered.

I was drunk and tired and I kissed her back. It was very nice, she wasn’t the first girl I had kissed though. Last year this random drunk girl I ran into in the bathroom of some pub kissed me. I was sozzled and it just happened. I don’t remember it very well, it’s all hazy. This, on the other hand I will never forget. 

Her lips are soft and I grip her hips as they pin me in place. Ebb’s hands come up to my shoulder’s and hold me down to the mattress of the bed. I kiss her and she kisses me.

The next morning I pull myself to the edge of the bed and run my hands through my mussed up bedhead hair. I look over at Ebb still sleeping soundly. I rub my temple. My hangover headache is massive. I don’t think that I am going to be able to do anything that involves thinking, let alone major movements, today. 

I lean down and pick my shirt up off the floor and pull it on. I rub my eyes and groan. I lay back down and face Ebb.

Eventually she opens her soft brown eyes and looks at me. She grimises and groans. “Oh, my head.”

I snort and heave myself out of the bed. I make my way to the bathroom.

Later that day we made it back to Watford. No one really cared that we were gone. I never talked to Ebb about what we did. That was kinda the last time I really did anything with her. Natasha offered her the job as goat herd and I traveled the world. For a while we kinda messaged each other, but then we just grew apart.

Now I sit down on Ebb’s bed and look at the picture. I flip it over and open the back up. A separate piece of paper falls out. I pick it up off the ground and turn it over. 

It’s a picture of me. I am laughing and I look so happy and carefree. I don’t recognize the background, but I know that I haven’t been that happy in a long time. In the back of the frame is another picture of me glaring daggers at someone out of the frame. 

I do recognize this one. It was taken by Ebb the night we spent in London. I had just gotten into an argument with some random guy who sat in my seat and was feeling the effects of the drink in my hand and the emotional strain of the past few days. I just needed to let it go on someone else. He didn't actually do anything wrong.

I never knew that Ebb kept these pictures of me. I reach into the front of my shirt and pull out a piece of paper. I unfold it and look at it. Ebb shyly looks up at me and is tucking her hair behind her ear with one hand. This was taken when we were in our seventh year, before Nicky left, and before Nicky and I got together. I had just told Ebb about how cute baby Baz was. 

Ebb had said that someday she would love to have kids. She never did. It’s a shame, she would have been such a wonderful mother. 

Her death was such a shame. I wish that I had never left as soon as school got out. I wish that I had stayed, or taken Ebb with me. I wish that Ebb had never taken that job as a goat herd. I wish that my damn sister wasn’t ever worried that Ebb would follow her brother and offered her that job. I wish that The fucking Mage hadn’t killed her. I wish that Ebb didn’t have to be such a hero and get herself killed. She didn’t deserve to die. If anyone deserved life it should have been her. Fuck it all. I wish that Ebb was here so that I could tell her how I feel, how I love her.

I stand up and clench my fist. I kick the wall and then relax, folding up the picture of Ebb and Ebb’s pictures of me carefully. I stick them back down my shirt and walk out of the barn.


End file.
